Shooting at Fort Hood, TX: Tonight we mourn

Malik Nidal Hasan

FAMILY HOTLINE: (254) 288-7570 or 1 (866) 836-2751

At least twelve are dead and thirty more wounded after between one and three gunmen opened fire on US Army soldiers at Fort Hood Texas. Initial reports are that one gunman is believed to be a US Army Major (who may or may not be dead) and there are two more soldiers in custody on suspicion of being accomplices.

Information is sketchy at the moment, but the base has been locked-down.

Fox News is reporting that a man named Maliq Nadal Hassan Malik Nidal Hasan has been killed ws the shooter. He was is a 39 year old Major who worked on the base. Televised reports are that he was vocal in his opposition to being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. UPDATE: The latest reports are that he is alive, not dead as previously reported.

Fort Hood is the largest military base, by population, in the United States military. Approximately 70,000 people work on the base, including 9,000 civilians plus the families of the soldiers. It is home to two US Army divisions and III-Corps headquarters.

UPDATE: President Obama called the shooting a “horrific act of violence” in a speech this afternoon.

UPDATE: Congressman John Carter is reporting he has just heard from Fort Hood that the two men in custody have been released and another man is being sought in connection with the shooting.

UPDATE: Malik Nidal Hasan has been confirmed as the suspected shooter by the Pentagon.

UPDATE: It is being reported that Hasan is was a psychaitrist specializing in post-traumatic stress. He was about to be deployed to Iraq.

UPDATE: CNN just reported but could not confirm that Hasan was originally from Jordan. Others have reported Hasan was a recent convert to Islam. Hasan was assigned to the Darnell Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.

UPDATE: The building where the shooting took place is a processing center for soldiers preparing to depart for or who have just returned from deployment.

UPDATE: WSB Radio in Atlanta is reporting the military is asking families not to call their loved ones, since telephone lines are clogged. Instead, the military is asking people to send texts.

UPDATE: Fort Hood expected to have a press conference by 6:10pm Central Time.

UPDATE: Both Fox News and CNN confirm that Hasan used two handguns of unknown caliber, firing a total of 40-50 rounds.

UPDATE: AP and Fox News reporting that Hasan recently received a poor performance review for his work while at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Source spoke on condition of annonymity due to the confidential nature of performance review records. Fox News confirms Hasan was NOT from Jordan, but from Virginia and a graduate of Virginia Tech where he was in ROTC.

UPDATE: Colonel Terry Lee (US Army-retired) who worked with Hasan stating on Fox News that the Major made statements six months ago in support of Muslims [Lee’s word] who oppose the US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hasan reportedly did not support the wars in those two countries.

UPDATE: CNN reports that Texas Governor Rick Perry has ordered all flags to fly at half-staff in that state.

” … In the meantime one of the top bloggers of WordPress has bleated long and loud about the ‘cowardice’ of the good major, who chose unarmed troops to pop off at, people lined up who couldn’t defend themselves.
He’s ignoring the fact that the major made excellent ‘military sense’ — isn’t this exactly why the Americans have so much treasure invested in tanks (so that soldiers safely behind armour can loosen up near-naked fighters out in the open), and B52s (so that soldiers safely five miles up in the sky can carpet-bomb fighters, villages, etc without any fear of retaliation) and so on? Cruise missiles from ships hundreds of miles out to sea—how can a raghead with a rifle compete with ‘heroism’that?

I love the American mindset, the same as any other blind fanatic—especially when they couldn’t even begin to see the similarities between what just happened to them (microcosm) and what they cheerfully do themselves with the full arsenal of a modern superpower to innocents abroad.
I refer especially to the ‘hero’ sitting at a desk—get this, in Washington—firing Hellfire missiles or 500 pound bombs into weddings, funerals, crowded markets, sleeping villages in Afghanistan/Pakistan a world away.

There is a huge difference between launching a cruise missile from hundreds of miles away or using armor to protect a soldier and walking into an enclosed area and shooting unarmed men. To equivocate like this shows a severe lack of understanding of war and a desperate desire to morally equivocate to develop a false basis for a particular world view.

The idea of war is to destroy your enemy without yourself being destroyed. The idea of Major Hasan was to kill defenseless people stacked up in a crowded facility like fish in a barrel. Soldiers on a battlefield, even those protected by armor or distance, face the possibility of the person or group they attack firing back and killing or wounding them.

Hasan’s cowardice was further compounded by the fact that he wore our uniform. There was no expectation by anyone in that facility that he would pull out a weapon and start shooting. He knew he would kill and wound several people before anyone knew what was going on. He is no different than the psychopath who shot dozens of students at his alma mater two years ago, people who had no capability to or expectation to need to defend themselves. Soldiers in their barracks are a legitimate military target, just as a terrorist in his home is a legitimate military target. But Hasan wasn’t on the opposing side, he was an American soldier. Yeah, it makes military sense to hit your enemy where he doesn’t expect. Just one problem: Those soldiers weren’t Hasan’s enemy. They were his brothers. Hasan betrayed their trust and killed 13 of them.

As for dropping a bomb into “weddings, funerals, crowded markets, sleeping villages in Afghanistan/Pakistan a world away,” we do not intentionally target such gatherings, though we do make those mistakes from time to time. It’s called “war,” not “precision death dealt only to those we wish to kill.” What is remarkable is the intense care to which American soldiers go in order to not accidentally target such gatherings.

The comparison is fundamentally flawed. The people who make a habit of blowing up weddings, funerals, crowded markets and the like are the radicals we are fighting. The ones Hasan called “heroes.” Not American soldiers.

Hasan didn’t want to go to Afghanistan, just like a lot of soldiers. But they go anyway. Soldiers go because if they don’t, someone else has to go in their place. Hasan was never going to hold a rifle and shoot an enemy soldier/terrorist. It’s unlikely he’d ever have been in danger of coming to harm. He was a medical professional. His only job was to help the men who go to war deal with the horrors of war.

I used to be suggested this blog by means of my cousin. I am no longer sure whether or
not this submit is written through him as nobody else realize
such specific approximately my problem. You’re amazing!